Those who sing about God’s love are angels, placing His message into our hearts. Imagine then that you are such an angel and one day you lose your voice.

Because of a chronic respiratory infection and “some well-meaning but poor medical advice,” Jepsen was unable to sing for two and a half years. One day, during that time, she discovered a verse from the Book of Hosea.

“I literally felt like I had been dropped in the middle of a desert,” reveals Gospel singer/songwriter, Wendy Jepsen. “I had to quit my job, felt very isolated, and every Sunday I would go to church and not be able to sing during the worship service.”

Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

Will bring her into the wilderness,

And speak comfort to her.

I will give her her vineyards from there,

And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;

She shall sing there,

As in the days of her youth

“When the Lord led me to these verses, He began to speak to me and help me realize what a powerful gift I had been given,” Jepsen says, “both in the silence and in the healing to come.”

This scriptural revelation about the time without her voice, which Jepsen calls her “time in the wilderness,” inspired the song “Faithful,” on Jepsen’s album, “Song of the Bride.” Jepsen feels that being stripped of her singing talent didn’t bring her despair but actually brought her into a deeper understanding of the Lord.

“He wants to be found by us,” Jepsen says. “So much so that he will take us aside from time to time, into lonely desert places where he can have our full attention. I began to see that wilderness experiences are all about how our hearts are developed into instruments of worship.”

Growing up in Anaheim, California, Jepsen didn’t have any formal Christian education. “We went to the beach on Sunday,” she says. “My only knowledge of Jesus was what I learned from listening to the soundtrack of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’” At 19, she found the Lord.

“One night, I was lying awake in my bed and I suddenly had an awareness of God as Someone who was real,” she reveals. “I prayed out loud, ‘God, if You are real, I need a hug.’ At that moment, I felt His arms circle not just around me, but inside and around my heart.”

Jepsen’s dad was a music teacher and she had learned piano and clarinet at an early age, and then took up guitar at 12. “And I would sing for anyone who would listen,” she says, “out on the front lawn of our house.”

After she discovered the Lord, she applied her musical talent to “writing songs to express [her] love for Jesus,” says Jepsen. “Mostly they were epic songs with lots of doctrine. I laugh now as I think about how I wrote, trying to capture entire theological concepts in a song. I feel sorry now for everyone who had to endure my ‘musical sermons,’” she laughs.

As she matured into a professional singer/songwriter, Jepsen combined the acoustic influences of Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt with a deeply spiritual and insightful lyric. Like “Faithful,” songs on the “Song of the Bride” album are influenced by Hosea as well as Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Paul’s prayer that “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened” inspired in Jepsen the songs “Be My Vision” and “Take My Eyes.”

“As our eyes are opened to His beauty and mercy, we cannot help but worship Him,” Jepsen states.

And it is with such opened eyes and heart and re-opened voice that angels like Wendy Jepsen can help lead us out of our Wilderness.

“I hope those that hear [my music] will experience His healing as a result,” she says. “I hope that the revelation of an infinitely beautiful and merciful God of love will awaken the heart of the listener to respond with deep, abandoned worship."